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Man who glassed friend over depression remark avoids jail

Adam Cooper

A man who inflicted serious damage on a mate's eyesight by smashing a beer glass over his head following a remark about a battle with depression has avoided jail.

Peter Ross Cramer, 36, walked from the County Court on Wednesday after a judge imposed a community corrections order, partly because Cramer has just become a father and would have been upset at hearing his friend discuss his mental health problems.

Cramer and his friend were at Melbourne's Mail Exchange Hotel on July 26 last year after attending an AFL game when the friend told a man they had begun drinking with of Cramer's previous treatment for depression, the court heard.

Without warning, Cramer then smashed a beer glass over his mate's head and later told bouncers he was "sick" of being put down and made to "feel like nothing" by his friend, judge Richard Smith said.

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The friend suffered lacerations to his forehead, nose and eyelid and required stitches to his eyeball, the court heard, and still suffered blurred vision in his left eye.

He had deferred studying law because of the difficulty reading small print, the court heard.

Judge Smith said Cramer had previously been treated for depression and had suffered anxiety, and described as "tactless" the friend's remarks to the other man.

"One might imagine you would be disappointed and possibly angry ... that your friend disclosed this to a relative stranger," he said.

"Nevertheless it provided no excuse for behaviour that followed."

Judge Smith quoted from a Court of Appeal judgment that described glassing as an "ugly phenomenon" that was often perpetrated by men who reacted with disproportionate anger towards a perceived slight. The consequences were almost always serious, the judge said.

He said Cramer had a problem with binge-drinking and his actions had left a man with permanent scarring and lasting damage to his eyesight.

But Judge Smith decided against imposing a jail term and instead imposed an 18-month community corrections order, which requires Cramer to undergo treatment for alcohol abuse and dependency and mental health issues, not to leave Victoria and to perform 150 hours of community work.

The judge said he decided against a prison sentence because Cramer had no history of violence, had suffered depression and would have been upset by his friend's remarks, had good rehabilitation prospects and had become a father at the weekend.

He urged Cramer - who had two convictions in 2005 for drink-driving - to abstain from alcohol for the sake of his family and the community.

Cramer pleaded guilty to one count of recklessly causing serious injury. The court heard he was embarrassed, remorseful and apologetic, but Judge Smith said he was not convinced his current mental health "situation is that severe".